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<< Return to the Gallery
CREATIVE
WRITING IDEAS
With Marie Kane (bio)
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Writers
who access this website are encouraged to use these lessons
by Marie Kane as prompts for writing poetry. However,
no part of this material may be disseminated or reproduced
by teachers for a class without express written permission.
For information and permission, contact Marie Kane at
mkanepoetrywits@gmail.com.
LESSON
#2 -- THE DREADED FIRST LINE
"I
have never started a poem yet whose end I knew. Writing
a poem is discovering." - Robert Frost
Writing
that first line for a poem is challenging We start, then
erase, chew the pencil or pen, pound the delete key, check
our email, stare at the page, and repeat the process until
we are sure we were never meant to write poetry in the
first place.
 DO
NOT DESPAIR! This first line is Not Crucial
to your poem. What? The first line is not important?
Right, because, AT FIRST, it DOES NOT MATTER WHAT YOUR
FIRST LINE IS AT THE OPENING OF YOUR WRITING because
you can always revise it, move it, or even delete it if
need be, as poets often do.
> More about the first line:
The first line is important IN LATER DRAFTS - ABSOLUTELY,
VITALLY IMPORTANT. BUT, by that time, your poem will
have taken shape and the first line - one that draws the
reader in, makes him or her want to continue reading -
will be easier to figure out.
> OK, then why IS this first line important when writing
a first draft if I am going to change it anyway?
What your initial first line DOES DO IS TO PROVIDE
A DOOR INTO THE POEM AND ALLOW THE WRITER TO ENTER IT.
This first line is a key to that door, or a doorbell itself,
to access the ideas for the poem - and then invite the
reader in, too
EXERCISE
TO WRITE A FIRST LINE, and a poem using that line.
>
FIND
THREE SHEETS OF NOTEBOOK PAPER, OR USE THREE SEPARATE
PAGES ON YOUR COMPUTER WORD DOCUMENT:
Please complete each task as you read it - one at a time.
(You need the three sheets for the whole exercise.)
1. ON THE FIRST SHEET OF PAPER IN A VERTICAL LINE,
WRITE TEN (10) UNRELATED NOUNS - it does not matter what
the nouns are. USE TANGIABLE ITEMS SUCH AS SPECIFIC
PLACES AND THINGS - NOT FEELINGS. If you
are stumped for ideas, write the names of objects around
you, with a small amount of description. So, right
now, around me is a picture of the mending wall Robert
Frost used for his poem of that title, a picture on a
calendar of fog in mountains, a stained mouse pad, a pair
of scissors with a red handle, and a thin scrap of paper.
2. ON THE SECOND SHEET OF PAPER IN A VERTICAL
LINE, WRITE TEN OCCUPATIONS. Write any you can think
of such as a salesperson at a video store, a cook, a veterinarian,
etc. Think of any ten occupations, the quirkier, the better,
but make sure they are true occupations.
3. ON THE SAME SHEET OF PAPER NEXT TO THE LIST
OF TEN OCCUPATIONS, write ONE or TWO VERBS concerning
each occupation that tell what this person has to do in
this job: a video salesperson would STACK the shelves,
RECORD films checked out, or CALL a customer; a cook would
SLICE, STIR, or TASTE, a vet would SOOTHE an animal, MEASURE
the amount of medicine to give, or OPERATE on an animal.
JUST WRITE THE VERBS, NOT A SENTENCE OR PHRASE.
Now, you have ten verbs from one piece of paper,
and ten nouns from your second piece of paper.
4. ON THE THIRD SHEET OF PAPER, PAIR EACH
NOUN WITH ONE OF THE VERBS, AND MAKE TEN SENTENCES
OUT OF THEM. USE EACH VERB AND NOUN ONLY ONCE.
THE OCCUPATIONS DO NOT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THESE
LINES; THEY ARE ONLY THERE TO ENABLE YOU TO CREATE VERBS
YOU MAY NOT THINK OF. (UNLESS THEY GIVE YOU IDEAS,
OF COURSE!)
a.
You can change the tense of the verb.
b. Definitely use different verbs with different
nouns to write something original, something creative.
c. Don't be ordinary, for example:
"The mouse pad recorded the movements of
her hand" is not as original or creative
as it could be.
5. From the nouns I listed and the verbs I came
up with, I could write:
>
The fog in the mountains stacked
higher and higher.
> The stained mouse pad called
for a hand to wipe it clean.
> Mending walls measure
steps with their stones.
> Scissors with red handles
slice the air.
> The scrap of paper soothed
her hand.
THIS
EXERCISE LEADS TO PERSONIFICATION AND METAPHOR.
NOTICE THAT WHEN NOUNS AND VERBS ARE PUT TOGETHER
IN UNEXPECTED WAYS, ORIGINAL AND UNUSUAL LINES OCCUR!
6. NOW YOU HAVE TEN SENTENCES. Do any of
them (or versions of them) give you an
idea for a poem? Do any of them draw you in? Do
they seem to ask for another line, and another?
If so, on ANOTHER SHEET OF PAPER, OR IN YOUR
JOURNAL, OR ON YOUR COMPUTER, write down the
line (or lines) you like, and begin writing from
that point. Think of this as an idea germinating,
a beginning, a raw work.
>
But, you say, this poem has nothing to do with my
life! Or what I want to write about!
REMEMBER,
THIS FIRST LINE IS AN ENTRY TO A POEM;
it will stir something in you to write, it will
get the words down on the page, it will enable you
to begin, and that's all we are trying to do here.
So, keep writing, using your line as 'a start';
you never know where the poem will take you. The
'topic' you wanted to write about may make it into
this poem, but if it doesn't, you will have written
something you never intended to write - and there's
the mystery, the astonishment, of writing poetry.
> What do other poets say about this kind of
writing?
As
Robert Frost said, "I have never
started a poem yet whose end I knew. Writing a poem
is discovering." If he didn't know where
his poems were going, then it is just fine for you
not to know either. And, look at this quote about
writing by Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Good
writing is a kind of skating which carries off the
performer where he would not go..."
So, be adventuresome, don't worry so much about
what the poem is ABOUT - be more concerned about
WHAT'S IN the poem; let the words carry you "where
you will not go."
As
usual, send me your poems generated by this exercise!
I am excited to read your work!
Send
to: mkanepoetrywits@gmail.com
and put in the subject line: Student Poem PoetryWITS
I
will comment on the poems here on this site,
so check back in! - both what is wonderful about them,
and a bit about what is needed to make them be a better
poem.
Till
next time-
And a quote to leave you with, "The role of a
writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we
are unable to say." ~Anaïs Nin
THANKS FOR THE PRIVILEGE ~Marie Kane
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